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Permanency in the News – Week of 06/05/17

June 5, 2017 -

Greetings Permanency Champions,

Permanency Tip of the Week: She is Too Old to Really Want / Need Permanency – Right?

In working with older youth, especially high school age youth, it is critically important that we take stock of our own beliefs about them wanting a permanent family as well as in us being able to find them a permanent family. If we convey, either directly or indirectly, that the youth probably does not want to find a family and / or we do not think we can find them a family – then this can end up sabotaging the whole process. It is NEVER too late for someone to find a family and it is often up to us to firmly hold onto this belief and help guide the youth to beginning to believe in the idea as well.

Children’s Action Network – Meet 16-year-old Gregory…a very active young man who enjoys all sports, though basketball and baseball are his two favorites. Gregory has a strong interest in statistics, particularly as they relate to sports. Statistics help him form opinions and make predictions about players and teams. There is a lot more to Gregory than just sports. He likes Pokémon and enjoys cooking. Gregory says his specialty dish is shrimp fried rice, but he hopes to one day learn more in the kitchen; maybe even becoming a professional chef. Gregory does well with younger children and volunteers as a camp counselor.

Gregory would benefit from a nurturing family that will provide him with the structure and patience needed to help him catch up academically and ideally one that loves sports as much as he does. Are you that family?

Permanency Related Articles:

The Conversation – Rebecca Epstein – Rocsana Enriquez started thinking about yoga again when she was pregnant. She was 19 and in an abusive relationship. When she was younger, Rocsana, whom I interviewed as part of my research, had taken part in a yoga program in a San Francisco Bay Area juvenile hall run by The Art of Yoga Project. She began using the skills she learned on the mat to slow herself down when she got angry and to pause before reacting. She remembered the breathing techniques and poses that made her feel better about herself.

The Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, of which I am executive director, released a first-of-its-kind report in April that synthesizes existing research, interviews with experts across the country and two original pilot studies focused on at-risk girls. Our conclusion: yoga and mindfulness programs can equip girls like Rocsana – especially those in the juvenile justice system – with tools that help them thrive.

Child Welfare League of America – The legislation, which has been endorsed by CWLA, is called theSupporting Foster Youth in Successful Parenting Act of 2017, would direct states to take certain steps as far as reporting on children and youth in foster care regarding unplanned pregnancies. It would provide an additional $50 million annually through Title IV-B to fund competitive grants to states to develop research and evidenced based strategies to support youth in foster care in successful parenting and preventing unplanned pregnancies.

Foster Focus Magazine – Dr. John N. DeGarmo, Ed.D. – With the increase in the number of children placed into foster care across the nation, there has been at the same time a tremendous challenge, nationwide, of retaining foster parents. Indeed, the turnover rate of foster parents ranges from 30% to 50%. Thus, 30% to 50% of foster parents make the decision to no longer be a foster parent home for children in need. As a result, with the increase in children in foster care paired with the decrease in number of foster parents, the end result is simply that there are not enough homes for children in need to be placed in, or a child is moved from one home to another, and so on and so forth…Grief and loss resources, training, and understanding, as well as issues of support are key issues in regards to retaining foster parents. As more children enter into foster care from across the nation, it is even more important that foster parents receive the resources, training and support they need as they care for children suffering from trauma and abuse. Next month, the Foster Care Institute shall examine the results about how foster parents view their relationships with caseworkers, and how this may affect foster parent retention.

Texas CASA – To achieve our vision of a safe and positive future for all Texas children, Texas CASA has worked to stay at the forefront of emerging challenges by developing several new initiatives, including Collaborative Family Engagement (CFE) (Video). Studies have found that one of the strongest indicators for child well-being is the number of committed adults in a child’s life. After the success of the five-year federally funded Diligent Recruitment project, Texas CASA approached the 84th Legislature and was appropriated funding for a two-year Family Finding collaboration between CASA and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS).

Pennsylvania State University—known widely for its winning sports teams and the notorious Sandusky sex scandal—will become home to the first national child abuse prevention center. The university announced in April that it had been selected by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to receive a $7.7 million grant over the next five years. In addition, Penn State has committed an additional $3.4 million to the center, bringing the total to over $11 million…The overarching goal of the center is to translate research into solutions that will help implement new, targeted, and optimized interventions designed to positively impact children’s lives.

Please forward this blog to other Permanency Champions and those that could use a healthy dose of Permanency.